Ambient
by sixthweasley
Summary: After a narrow escape at the Battle of Astronomy Tower, Dumbledore talks to Harry, and reveals to the true reason why only he has the power to defeat Voldemort. But with these new struggles come new resolutions, and they are much closer than they appear. Post-HBP, DH AU


It was too close, far too close. Although he'd come to terms with the fact it had been Dumbledore's plan all along, he still couldn't believe that the headmaster meant for it to go that far. He wondered what would have happened if he hadn't run up the stairs to stun the first Death Eater in sight. Would Snape have pondered a little while longer, would he have turned to Bellatrix and taken out the most powerful one of all before taking on the rest? Would he have just killed Dumbledore to preserve his role? Harry didn't know, and he would never know. And despite the fact that Snape had defended him the moment he revealed himself at the top of the stairs, he was still having a difficult time formulating trust for the man who had shamelessly bullied him for the past six years. It couldn't have been an act. No, absolutely not.

One of the nurses who'd flooed in after word of the attack attempted to tend to the wound on Harry's forehead, but he flinched and jerked his head to the side, shooting the woman a look. She moved away. There wasn't much she could do anyway. Yes, head wounds bleed a lot, but all the blood was crusted over by now.

He looked down at the man below him, but he wouldn't be able to tell who he was if it weren't for the name tag on the foot of the bed. Greyback did it again. There was some speculation as to whether or not Bill would ever be able to see from his left eye after this. According to Madam Pomfrey, the gash had gone deep and very close to his socket. His entire face was in bandages. All except for two breathing holes, and a window for his remaining eye. Not only was his face made a victim, but also the entire left side of his neck and shoulder. He hoped Hogwarts had a long supply of sleeping drought, because he couldn't imagine the pain Bill would endure if he were to wake up anytime soon. Harry exhaled loudly, grinding his teeth. He imagined what he would do to Greyback if he was ever fortunate enough to cross his path.

He was tuned into two separate conversations, not hearing all from one, but half from both, which was enough for him to fill in the blanks.

"You z'ink zat I vill not marry 'im because 'e has scars?" Fleur was shouting at Molly, who Harry assumed was trying to deter the girl away. "Z'ees scars show zat my husband is brave! Besides, if you find 'im appalling, wheech I do not, I think I'm beautiful enough for ze both of us."

The other conversation was much less personal, some might even file it under 'business related'. Two male aurors, both of whom Harry had never seen before and honestly had no other interest in besides the news they had to offer, spoke quietly a little ways away. They must have thought everyone was paying attention to the family drama going on between Fleur and Molly. As he listened, he discovered his presumptions were correct. The aurors has scoured the entire castle; Draco was nowhere to be found. He remembered a time where Hermione sat across from him, just as she was doing now, and told him that there was no way Malfoy had followed in his father's footsteps, and that Harry's obsession was going too far. He looked at her from across the bed. She had one arm around Ginny, and the other holding her hand in comfort. She looked around, undoubtedly looking for Ron, who was nowhere to be seen since he stormed out in a fit of emotion. His eyes lingered on her for a moment. There was proof now. She was wrong.

Suddenly, there was a third conversation in the mix. Harry turned his ear towards it, while still keeping an eye on the Weasleys. It was some sort of dispute, but the calmest he'd ever heard.

"C'mon, please." A familiar voice whined. "Let us in. We just want to make sure they're alright."

"I'm sorry." An Auror said. "You can't be in here. Not until everything is settled."

"Can you at least let them know we stopped by?"

"Of course."

Harry turned in his chair, it gave a screech across the floor, causing both parties to look his direction. "Let them in."

"Mr Potter-"

"It's fine." He said, turning his attention to look Seamus, then Dean in the eye. "It's fine."

There was no more shouting from other side of the bed. In fact, Mrs. Weasley was turned away from Fleur - who was facing her fiancee - and began whispering among the twins. Harry met his housemates halfway, feeling as though they weren't close enough to the Weasley family to see Bill in his current state. Before he could speak, Seamus cut him off.

"What the fucking hell happened out there? It's a right mess and people are running around screaming like their pants are on fire." He questioned. Harry took a breath to answer, but the Irishman continued on. "Who is that over there? Is that Ron? Good God mate-"

"No, it's Bill."

"Will he be alright?" Dean asked in a small voice, his eyes grazing over the family. Harry noticed his eyes meet Ginny's, she sat up a bit in her seat and looked away. Dean looked back to Harry. "Are you going to be alright? And Hermione? Ron?"

"About as good as we can get, I think. Ron screwed up his shoulder somehow, but he said he was going to the bathroom and we haven't seen him since."

"Maybe he got tied up?" Dean suggested, voice full of hope. Harry felt a slight twinge of annoyance, he didn't feel he could be hopeful about anything at the moment.

"Maybe."

Then, there was a presence to the left of him. Harry turned to see Ginny, with her bright hair a mess. She looked as if she's missed an entire night's sleep and did nothing more than toss and turn. He knew it must have been the constant patting and rubbing of her head by her mother. Any other moment he would have teased her about it, but not today.

"Hey Dean," She greeted gently, crossing her freckled arms in front of her chest. "Seamus."

"We came as soon as we heard your family had arrived. We couldn't find you or Ron anywhere, we got worried."

"It's Bill, he got attacked." She confessed, looking back over her shoulder. Right as Dean was about to speak, she cut him off. "He's okay, it'll all be okay. Thank you both, for stopping by."

Harry's eyes drifted between the two of them, meanwhile Seamus seemed to have taken quite an interest in the pattern of the floor tiles. It became a place Harry felt he didn't belong, but Seamus grabbed him by the arm and lead him aside.

"I'm still here for you, you know. Your family too, if you guys need anything-" Harry heard Dean say.

"Thank you, that's really sweet of you, but we're going to get through this." Ginny responded, Seamus' voice cut his attention away from what was transporting behind them

"While the teachers were trying to get us to the safe zone, they kept trying to keep us from giving any attention to anything other than the people around us. They closed and locked all the spare doors, shut the curtains, but I saw before they had the chance." He whispered. "There was something in the sky. It looked like some kind of skull. It was him, wasn't it? He was here, on the grounds."

"No, not exactly." Harry said, clearly struggling. He thought if the events of that night, but while he had snip-bits of the experience, they were scattered. It was like having a pile of puzzle pieces without a picture to go off of. He wondered if the adrenaline had taken him, or if there was a possibility of him still being under it, but he looked his friend in the eye. "Look, Seamus, I'm not the kind of person to hide things from the people I care about in order to try and protect them, because I know that doesn't work. I want to tell you everything that happened, you and Parvati, and Neville, and Luna, and all of them, but I can't really put it all together at the moment. So, if you just give me some time to sort through things-"

"Oh, no no. I get it." He assured, shaking his head. "I get it. I'm sorry."

Harry gave a simple nod.

"Well, we're glad you're fine." Seamus picked up again. "And fair warning, everyone is confined to their common rooms now, so don't leave here unless you're ready for that."

"Thanks."

"No problem." He clapped Harry on the back and walked back over to Dean, who had received a short hug from Ginny, and they began their way out the door. Dean waved at Harry, and Harry waved back with half a smile. Ginny moved to join him again, but turned when she noticed Bill's nurse was back. As tired as she seemed, but not to Harry's surprise, she sprinted back to her brother's bedside, shoving George out of the way so she could look the woman in the eye. Harry followed suit, but merely stood behind her.

The nurse was dressed in a pastel pink uniform, and carried a clipboard close to her chest. She looked at Mrs Weasley, then down at her paper, and back up again, shaking her head, eyebrows raised. Mr. Weasley put an arm around his wife's shoulders as the nurse spoke.

"I don't know how," She croaked, flabbergasted. "But your son is in the clear. He shows no sign of genetic mutation. He might experience a taste for rare steak on occasion, but he is as he was, pure blooded wizard."

Mrs. Weasley's pursed lips parted and her eyes went wide. "So, he's okay? He's not-"

"No."

"But he was bitten, I thought it didn't matter whether the person was in their wolf form or not? A werewolf is still a werewolf…"

"You're right. But Bill shows no sign of being a werewolf. It's a miracle, honestly." The nurse assured.

Simultaneously, Bill's mother and Fiancée burst into tears. Despite their apparent feud only moments before, they clung onto each other. Harry looked down, happy to hear the news, but also feeling a bit out of place. He could feel eyes on him, and turning to the left he saw Hermione. She had her arms folded across her chest and appeared to also be in a state of uncomfort. She motioned for them to leave, and he gently placed a hand on Ginny's shoulder before turning to walk away.

"Seamus said they have the common rooms on lock down." Harry whisperer when Hermione came into range. "Is there anything we can do tonight? I dunno, check back up at the Astronomy Tower, look around, see if we missed something?"

"Harry, there are aurors everywhere. I'm sure if there's a chance we could find something then they've already found it by now." She shrugged.

"But they don't know what we know."

Hermione shook her head and looked at her feet. "Harry, I think we'll have a better chance in the morning. A couple hours of sleep isn't going to make that big of a difference."

He swallowed. "Okay, okay. By then we'll probably be thinking more clearly anyway."

"Exactly." Hermione was never one to back away from an argument, but as he looked at her and examined the tone of her voice, he felt as though they were putting a constitutional effort to keep the peace. Together, they began walking back to the common room.

Hermione was right, there were aurors everywhere. They lined the halls, and stood guard at every cross-ways. They hardly payed attention to them as they walked passed. Harry noticed Hermione smile and give a faint wave to most of them, but the lot didn't even acknowledge their existence. He felt a pang of worry, aurors were normally so eager to talk with him.

"Is it bad to say that they make me feel uneasy?" Hermione confided. "Given we're on the same side."

"Are we though? Because I feel like the Ministry doesn't listen to a word I say."

"They're trying to fix things their way."

"Yeah," He scoffed. "Well, it's the wrong way."

They nodded at the dark haired witch standing guard by the portrait hole, and clambered through. Every other time Harry had come through the Hogwarts and Gryffindor barrier, he has been greeted with joyous laughter and warmth, but the air was still tonight. It appeared as though all the Gryffindors accepted the barricade and gone up to their dorms to sleep. They stood at the entrance for a moment, neither making physical mention of the door clicking shut behind them.

"Goodnight, Hermione." He said, begging to take a step forward. He felt a hand on his arm.

"Shouldn't we do something about your head? Clean it up a bit?" She offered, concern flooding her eyes. "It might make it hard to sleep."

Truth was, he hadn't even noticed since the injury had occurred, he was far too busy being preoccupied with other thoughts. He nodded, initially surprised that Hermione knew the charm, but in remembering her actions all the years he'd known her, it faded away. She grabbed a towel from the counter and moistened it with her wand. She handed it to him. He wiped the crust from his cheek and down his neck. He dabbed lightly the closer the towel got to the wound. He lowered his hand back into his lap to signify he was done, and she pointed her wand at the cut. He could see a light through his closed eyelids, and felt a slight burning. But when he rose his hand to touch the area, he found no pain.

"There," Hermione said, slightly more chipper than she had been all night. "All better. Rest easy, Harry."

He watched her until she reached the bottom of the stairs, then decided it was best he head up to bed too. He heard her voice once again as she turned to face him from the top landing.

"When you get in there, can you tell Ron that I want to talk to him tomorrow." She said, avoiding his eyes and trying to cover up the color creeping up her neck. He couldn't help the edge of his mouth from rising slightly.

"No problem. Can't see why he'd have an objection."

With that, she turned and was gone.

Harry stepped into his own dorm and was greeted by the sound of snoring. He didn't look around, but he came to the assumption he'd have to give Hermione's message in the morning. His mind raced. He felt as though he could barely lift a hand, but mentally, he could throw a horse. He kept replaying the scenes of the night over and over again. He was right before, in just a couple of hours, the story was setting itself straight.

It all began after he came back with Dumbledore. One minute they were fine, and at the faintest sound of footsteps, he was ordered by the headmaster to wait on the bottom floor. So, he did. Next thing he knew he was looking up at around a dozen death eaters and knowing there were more from the explosions in the hall. Malfoy was meant to kill their headmaster, but despite the newly tattooed mark on his forearm, an ultimate pledge to his dictator, he could not do it. The moment he saw Snape point his wand in Dumbledore's face was the moment his heart snapped in two. Not for himself, Harry never trusted him, but for Dumbledore, who had complete faith and love in his heart for the one who was intending to do the most damage you could ever do to a person. There was no decision on Harry's part, there was no rational thinking, he was just at the top of the stairwell with his wand forward and his invisibility cloak in a puddle on the ground behind him. Snape immediately shot a curse at Bellatrix Lestrange, and the battle commenced from there. Malfoy ran off in a panic, and as soon as he disappeared from sight, Harry saw a flash of ginger hair. Immediately thinking it was Ron, he called out to him. It wasn't until he was attacked by Greyback and had his fiancée shouting for him did he realize he was mistaking. He was hit with a bogey colored light, and everything was blurry. When it wore off and objects became detectable, he was on his way to the infirmary.

Now, he was groping around his trunk for some more comfortable clothes to change into after his shower. Consumed by his thoughts, he didn't notice the door open and close, but jumped as a large figure rounder into his vision.

"Merlin, Ron," he whispered, his heartbeat regulating. "Where have you been?"

"A lot of places, to be honest with you." He walked passed him and Harry got a whiff of sour iron. His eyes followed him as he got to his bunk, pulled a nightshirt from the floor, and removed the one he was wearing. Harry's eyes landed upon his bare back and widened slightly in concern.

"The blood's not mine, I promise you. I helped bring Bill in; he was bleeding like mad." Ron punctuated the sentence by throwing his soiled clothing on the ground roughly.

"Ginny mentioned you screwed up your shoulder, but what the Hell did you do?"

"I ran out, looking for her. One of the death eaters saw me and shot something at me. I knew I could dodge it faster than I could pull my wand so I jumped out of the way, but I clearly didn't think about it too much because I ended up sliding on the platform and falling halfway down the staircase." There were dark parallel marks diagonally across the top portion of his back. Even with just the illumination from his wand, Harry could see where stone met flesh, and the bruising radiating from there. He sure there were more, because even though he could only see the backs of them, Ron's arms seemed awful too. He carefully redressed, minding his injuries. "My right arm popped out of socket, but I was able to push it back in with Ginny's help. I suppose I'll live."

Harry nodded and went back to searching his trunk. "You never answered my question, where were you?"

"Who are you, my wife?" Ron half snorted, but was cut off by the deep snoring Harry thought was his earlier. "I just needed some time alone, so I went to Myrtle's bathroom. I tried to come back into the infirmary but they wouldn't let me in, said I needed to 'go back to safety'. I really didn't want to deal with all the questions I knew people would ask me, so I looked through the building. I went back to the hall, and wandered up to Astronomy Tower. Just to see if I could find anything. I didn't-"

"Hang on, how? There's aurors everywhere?"

Ron turned and tossed Harry a sheet of silvery fabric with his old stupid smirk on his face. "Found it in the hall. One of the big bads probably snatched it."

He rubbed the material between his fingers, still in awe of how his hand vanished underneath it. He remembered when he got it. Ron was there, just as he was currently. He never knew just how much use the both of them would get out of it when he held it for the first time.

"How's Hermione?" Ron's voice broke through his recollections.

"Worried about you." Harry confirmed, Ron nodded and turned away. "She said she wants you to wait for her tomorrow morning."

Ron didn't respond.

"I don't think it's a bad thing, given she was searching for you in the infirmary after you left like Voldemort is currently searching for me."

His friend's eyes seem to shine a little brighter. "Was she really?"

"Yeah, she'd sit up in her chair a bit when the door opened, then get all disappointed when it wasn't you."

"Oh." Then silence. Ron clambered into bed, and Harry moved to the other room to start his shower.

As much as he enjoyed being with Ron and Hermione, he found great joy in being alone. Being stuck with the Dursleys was not his definition of alone, their company just made him feel that way, but it was the peace a quiet and left to his thoughts. With the wave of his hand he turned the spigot and warm water cascaded down his chest. The water found every cut on him, but he figured getting clean would be the best thing he could do. He turned and ran a hand through his hair, shaking out all of the dust and debris. When he was here, there was no Voldemort. There weren't a gang of elitists out to kill those they didn't see fit; there was no war. The pending responsibility didn't exist, and neither did his fear. He was exhausted, and he knew he needed to get out and crawl into bed, but he would stay until the warm water began to chill. After all, he wasn't sure how many showers he had left.


End file.
